Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

An Indie Next Pick • An Amazon Best Book of the Month One of Book Riot's 5 to Watch • An iBookstore Editor's Choice

"A mesmerizing debut at once sorrowful, intimate, and optimistic."*

Megumi, a young Japanese woman living in New York and hiding from her past, is hired to help rescue Thomas, an enigmatic, scarred man who has isolated himself in his bedroom for three years. With the tacit acceptance of Thomas's wife, a passionate relationship develops between Megumi and Thomas. Its emotional impact and surprising conclusion will leave all three characters forever changed. Mirroring both East and West in its search for healing, The Rental Sister pierces the emotional walls of grief and delves into the power of human connection to break through to the world waiting outside.

"Strange and tender . . . [Backhaus's] writing, which is as clear and direct as flowing water, convincingly portrays the deepening connection

Review

"Hikikomori, Backhaus explains in his implausible debut, is the Japanese term for withdrawn, an experience apparently more common than Silke Tessler realizes when she goes looking for help for her husband, Thomas, who shut himself up in a room three years earlier and has barely been outside of it since. Though the traditional 'rental sister' concept  evidently an antidote for a hikikomori  remains vague, in this novel it means that Silke hires a beautiful 22-year-old Japanese girl to bring Thomas back into the world. Lucky for him, oral sex and illicit nights together hiding from Silke work wonders with even the most reclusive. While the intellectual underpinning of the book could be said to pose interesting questions about guilt, love, and renewal, more often than not it reads like an adolescent fantasy in which Thomas, in order to save himself and his marriage, must subject himself to Megumi's 'immense' sexual appetite; what could be better than a wife-approved tryst with a publicly demure but privately voracious young woman who wants nothing in return? Blatant metaphors of winter, spring, and a spiritually cleansing trip to the hot springs don't buoy the disagreeable proceedings. Agent: David Marshall, Marshall Rights." Publishers Weekly Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Review

"A mesmerizing debut at once sorrowful, intimate, and optimistic . . . Told in crisp and lyrical prose and a nontraditional narrative that shifts between first- and third-person, Backhaus's novel is courageous and spare, an enthralling success."--Booklist, starred review Booklist

Review

"[A] strange and tender debut novel . . . His writing, which is as clear and direct as flowing water, convincingly portrays the deepening connection between Thomas and Megumi." The Wall Street Journal

Review

"This is one remarkable debut." The Toronto Star

Review

"Written deeply, cleanly, sparely and gently, like fingers playing over the strings of a harp." St. Louis Post Dispatch

Review

"Required reading." The New York Post

Review

"Listen to the music of this novel closely. It is the sound of genius. To miss it would be to miss a story that will change the way you feel about your own life." Robert Goolrick, author of "A Reliable Wife"

Review

"A mesmerizing debut at once sorrowful, intimate, and optimistic . . . Told in crisp and lyrical prose and a nontraditional narrative that shifts between first- and third-person, Backhaus's novel is courageous and spare, an enthralling success." --Booklist, starred review

"[A] strange and tender debut novel . . . His writing, which is as clear and direct as flowing water, convincingly portrays the deepening connection between Thomas and Megumi." --The Wall Street Journal

"This is one remarkable debut." --The Toronto Star

"Tender and deftly rendered."--Arkansas Democrat Gazette

"The book is . . . written deeply, cleanly, sparely and gently, like fingers playing over the strings of a harp. Jeff Backhaus has apparently worked at many jobs, but it seems that he has now found his vocation."--St. Louis Post Dispatch

"Listen to the music of this novel closely. It is the sound of genius. To miss it would be to miss a story that will change the way you feel about your own life."--Robert Goolrick, author of A Reliable Wife

"Required reading." --The New York PostReviews

Synopsis

Thomas Tessler has cloistered himself in his bedroom and shut out the world for the past three years. His wife, Silke, lives right in the next room, but Thomas no longer shares his life with her, leaving his hideout only occasionally, in the wee hours of the night, to pick up food at the grocery store around the corner from their Manhattan apartment. Unable to cope with a devastating loss, Thomas has become isolated and withdrawn. He is hikikomori.

Desperate for one last chance to salvage their life together, Silke hires Megumi, a young

Synopsis

hikikomori, n. h?kik?'mo?ri; literally pulling inward; refers to those who withdraw from society.

Inspired by the real-life Japanese social phenomenon called hikikomori and the professional "rental sisters" hired to help, Hikikomori and the Rental Sister is about an erotic relationship between Thomas, an American hikikomori, and Megumi, a young Japanese immigrant hiding from her own past. The strange, insular world they create together in a New York City bedroom and with the tacit acknowledgment of Thomas's wife reveals three human hearts in crisis, but leaves us with a profound faith in the human capacity to find beauty and meaning in life, even after great sorrow. Mirroring both East and West in its search for healing, Hikikomori and the Rental Sister pierces the emotional walls of grief and delves into the power of human connection to break through to the world waiting outside.

Synopsis

Named an Indie Next pick, an Amazon Best Book of the Month, one of Book Riot's 5 to Watch, and an iBookstore Editor's Choice, this acclaimed novel is now in paperback.

Megumi, a young Japanese woman living in New York and hiding from her past, is hired to help rescue Thomas, an enigmatic, scarred man who has isolated himself in his bedroom for three years. With the tacit acceptance of Thomas's wife, a passionate relationship develops between Megumi and Thomas. Its emotional impact and surprising conclusion will leave all three characters forever changed. Mirroring both East and West in its search for healing, The Rental Sister pierces the emotional walls of grief and delves into the power of human connection to break through to the world waiting outside.

About the Author

Jeff Backhaus has been a cook, an art director, and a professional pilot. He has lived and worked in Korea, and now lives in New York.